Johnson in no rush to sign with new team
By JOSH DUBOW
AP Sports Writer
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) - Keyshawn Johnson isn’t in a rush to make a decision about where he will play next season after being released by the Carolina Panthers.
“I’m relaxing in 88-degree weather in Southern California,” Johnson said Friday in a telephone interview. “I’m just chilling. There’s no sense of urgency on this end.”
There are plenty of teams that figure to want one of the game’s better possession receivers, including the Oakland Raiders and Tennessee Titans. Johnson said he’s open to talking to any team and said he’d be interested in any team that’s interested in him.
“Any time you can play football, most situations interest you,” he said. “You listen to everything. It’s a process. You take the information and process and see if things are a fit. I don’t know where anybody’s process is or where they’re heading.”
The Raiders could be interested in adding a veteran receiver after trading Randy Moss to New England during last month’s draft. The top two receivers currently on the roster are Jerry Porter and Ronald Curry, and the addition of a receiver like Johnson could help ease rookie quarterback JaMarcus Russell’s transition to the NFL.
Oakland also has an advantage for Johnson in that it is close to his Southern California home and his children spend some of their time living with their mother in the San Francisco Bay area. Johnson played in college at USC and thinks highly of new Raiders coach Lane Kiffin, a former assistant for the Trojans.
“He’s a good young coach who will do well in the NFL because he did well at SC,” Johnson said. “Usually when you do well at SC, you do well in the NFL. At least that’s been our track record in the past with coaches, including the owner of the Raiders.”
Oakland owner Al Davis was an assistant at USC in the 1950s before becoming an assistant with the Chargers in the AFL.
Johnson was released by the Panthers earlier this month after the team drafted another Southern California receiver, Dwayne Jarrett, in the second round. Johnson, who was the No. 1 pick out of USC in 1996, praised the pick while working as a draft analyst for ESPN, but never got a chance to play with Jarrett.
“Every organization makes decisions on how they do things,” Johnson said. “I can’t control how things ended up there.”
Johnson, who will turn 35 in July, had 70 catches for 815 yards and four touchdowns last season and became the 16th player in NFL history with 800 career catches. He won a Super Bowl in the 2002 season with Tampa Bay.